The Demon's Curse (Shadouge)
by SilenceOfSanctuary
Summary: When Shadow discovers Rouge bitten and comatose at the hands of a grey-black hedgehog, he vows to get revenge. However, perhaps Rouge is not as far off as he thinks...
1. Chapter 1

_-Flashback-_

"_How could you?!" Rouge screamed, throwing a pillow at his face. He caught it easily with a single hand and dropped it to the floor. He grabbed her wrists to try and calm her struggling._

"_Please Rouge! Listen to me!" He pleaded, his ruby eyes wide and desperate for understanding. She didn't want to listen. Never again. Not to him…not to someone who lied to her. She aimed a high kick at his face and he jumped backwards to dodge it, releasing her hands. With agility like the agent she was, she dove from the open window behind her and flew off into the night, leaving him behind to watch her retreating silhouette, his arms crossed over his breaking heart._

_-End of Flashback-_

Shadow sat high in the limb of a maple tree, one leg dangling to the side and the other resting on the branch. The yellow and orange leaves danced around him with the breeze. Through a space in these leaves, the moon shown down upon him, her fullness displayed with great decadence. Shadow crossed his arms over his chest and sighed, closing his eyes.

He had just lost the only true friend he had ever had, except perhaps Omega, who was in sleeping mode at G.U.N. headquarters and would be for another three years. Rouge…such a manipulative yet delicate creature. Ever since they began working together with G.U.N., Shadow had felt as though his life was beginning to piece itself together again. The amnesia had yet to fade and no memories had returned, but his time on Earth had helped create new memories to fill the void in his mind.

_I'm sorry Rouge…so sorry._

He covered his face with one of his hands as tears began to leak out of the corners of his eyes. He cursed himself; he was the Ultimate Life Form. Why did he have these weak emotions; this overwhelming sense of loss and dread? He forced himself back to the silent stoic way he usually was, swiping the tears away. One teardrop beaded on the end of his finger and his ruby eyes flared in anger at the sight of it.

Suddenly a loud, piercing scream reached his ears and they twitched; his eyes widened in horror and recognition. _Rouge!_ Before even the blink of an eye Shadow was dodging between branches, heading for her. _I'm coming Rouge…just hold on!_

* * *

Rouge was thrown to the ground once more by the dark hedgehog. His sinister scarlet-emerald eyes bored into her, a malicious smile crossing his lips, exposing his fangs. She couldn't escape; he had pulled both of her wings from her body, leaving herself coated with her own blood. She could still hear the tearing of flesh and the snapping of bones…her own screaming echoing in her ears.

"Did you really think I would let you escape me?" The black hedgehog asked, that wicked smile not leaving his muzzle. He licked his lips slowly, sensuously, but there was nothing Rouge found attractive about the gesture…not anymore. "Did you really think I would let you get away with this?" He placed his foot on her knee and stomped down. With a disturbingly loud snap the bone shattered. Rouge screamed so loud her throat, raw as it was, began to bleed. She could taste the salty red mixture on her tongue.

"W-w-why? Why Shadow? P-please don't do this…" She whimpered, the pain shooting in rapid volts up and down her body. The white of her outfit was no longer its original color. Her ears flattened as the dark hedgehog cackled with laughter.

"Why not?! I find this so enjoyable, watching you writhe in agony. That pained expression…your screams…you look absolutely delicious." He licked his lips again and he grabbed Rouge up from the ground, forcing her head back, exposing her neck. Despite the pain she struggled; she clawed at his face and chest but found his grip like steel; she couldn't break free.

"NOOOO!" She screamed as his sharp fangs pierced her neck…

* * *

Shadow heard a loud scream and then a weak whimpering below him. He looked down from the tree branch he had landed on.

A grey-black hedgehog had Rouge in his arms, holding her immobile, drinking from her neck. Rouge herself, coated in crimson, was limp and unmoving in the creature's grasp, her eyes closed.

"Rouge!" Shadow launched himself at the grey-black attacker, his fangs growing at his panic and rage. The intruder looked over his shoulder at the red-black blur of Shadow and merely grinned before vanishing into a thick black mist-like substance that dissolved into nothing, dropping Rouge's lifeless body to the ground. Shadow landed lightly on his feet and rushed to Rouge's side, sliding onto his knees beside her.

"Rouge? Rouge!" Shadow shook her blood-caked shoulders, desperate to wake her. "Get up! GET UP!" He immediately began pressing on her chest, trying to perform CPR. He kissed her dry lips and could taste blood on them. "Please…Rouge, wake up!" He begged and pleaded but it was to no avail…Rouge's body remained cold and dead.

Shadow leaned his head back, howling and screaming in an emotional agony he had only felt once before. His whole being was filled with this shattering, piercing pain. His best friend…his only friend…

"No…Not again. Never again. I won't lose her!" Shadow scooped up the comatose Rouge and took off into the dark forest, heading for G.U.N. headquarters.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! This is just part of a story that's been playing around in my head for a while. I'm not sure if I will continue it but if people are interested I might try and keep writing. Please review! It really does help. x3**


	2. Chapter 2

For the next week, Shadow kept a near constant vigil at Rouge's side as she laid in G.U.N. headquarters' medical bay. The sickly green-white hospital gown was all that she wore and several IV tubes were stuck in her forearms. Her normally warm turquoise eyes had been closed since he had found her bleeding and dead on the ground of Forest Falls. He had rushed her to the medical bay as soon as he had found her.

Rouge, luckily, was not dead like Shadow had originally thought. However, unluckily, the poor bat had been put into a comatose state and the doctors that worked for G.U.N. didn't know if she would ever wake up. In the cleft of her neck a dark blue-purple mark surrounded by red inflammation had taken Shadow's notice after he had delivered Rouge for treatment. The doctors had tried creams and medications but nothing had affected the swelling at all.

Shadow never understood this worried feeling that kept him impatient and pacing around Rouge's room. He remembered having done this before in the past with someone else when they had taken to bed with sickness, but the memory was blurry and vague. The only true detail he could make of it was the warmth of a hand that had been placed over his own.

At the end of the week, as Shadow flipped through a book looking for information on the bite mark, Rouge gasped softly yet her eyes remained closed. Shadow's ears perked up and he looked up from the pages; the female bat had done this off and on the last few days. Each time Shadow had felt his excitement mount but it had crashed down when she would return back to unconsciousness. The doctors claimed it was a good sign, that she was trying to wake herself up; Shadow couldn't help but feel uneasy. She sounded as though she were in pain; her gasps were sharp, as though someone had startled her.

Hesitantly Shadow reached his hand out and placed it over Rouge's still cold one. He felt her fingers twitch slightly at his touch then fall still. Despite being in a comfortably heated room for a week, Rouge's body had yet to retain any warmth. Her skin was always ice cold as though she had laid in snow and Shadow had touched her just as she was free of it.

"Shadow?" A soft voice called from the doorway; it was one of the female nurses, clothed in a white-pink dress-like outfit. Shadow stood and kissed Rouge's hand gently before leaving her side, closing the door softly behind him.

* * *

_**With Rouge…**_

"_Roooouuuge…" _

_That voice again. It had repeated in her mind since she had seen Shadow... Her neck at times felt as though it were on fire; the pain was sudden and fierce. Each time she would gasp and she could sense her body; she could sense her muscles flexing as she moved but she couldn't feel them._

"_Roooouuuge…"_

"_Go away you stupid voice."_

"_Well, that's not very kind of you."_

"_Go to hell!"_

"_Heh…I'm sure I will."_

_Rouge could feel someone press into her mind, forcing their way inside. Though she tried to find the way they were getting into her thoughts, she couldn't find the break in her consciousness._

"_Rooooooouge…"_

"_Go away! Leave me alone!"_

"_I can't…not now."_

_Suddenly the bite flared like someone had pressed a brand into her skin. While outside she merely gasped once more, inside she was screaming, thrashing wildly in her brain to break free, but whatever had her in their grasp was strong beyond measure…and they weren't letting her go._

* * *

The grey-black hedgehog sat beside the silent bat, his legs crossed at the knee as he gently stroked her shoulders and belly and then her peaceful face. He observed her bite mark, which had grown redder and swelled even more. He swiped a hand across his muzzle, drawing blood that he had just draw from her away from his mouth and instead staining his white glove.

_She's quite a specimen…She'll make an excellent wife for me._

The grey-black hedgehog slowly leaned in and kissed the comatose Rouge. She moaned softly at his touch, as though she were coming back to life, but then settled back into her deep sleep. He pulled away and smiled, his teeth exposed and fanged.

"A little longer, my love…just a little longer."

With that, he vanished in a puff of black mist just before the door reopened and Shadow walked inside, closing it firmly behind him.


	3. Chapter 3

Far off from the sleeping bat and her silent guardian, a strange and foreign presence was making itself known. High up in the Fallen Mountains, in a small town called Holdstead, a figure walked through the tall wooden archway, following a curving road leading into the hub of the civilization. This figure clasped a hand over the tie at his neck holding his tattered black cloak across his shoulders. The hood of the cloak was pulled high up over his face to conceal it from wandering, curious eyes.

He made his way past small shops and houses, stepping lightly past people walking the paths up and down between the buildings. Snowflakes fell heavily over the walking passerby, all who were bundled in heavy winter wear. Despite it being cool fall weather lower on the plains, the cold air had hit the mountainside early this year, forcing men, women and children into heavy coats and boots.

The hedgehog stepped into cover under the jutting roof of an antique shop, pausing to brush the snow that had accumulated in spots on his cloak before continuing on his way. With every inhale his lungs seemed to freeze inside his rib cage; every exhale left a long string of mist behind him as he walked further on, avoiding eye contact with any he passed.

The black hedgehog slipped inside a separate building off to his left, eager to get out of the frigid air. Inside, boisterous laughter echoed to him through the hallways; his curiosity getting the better of him, he walked further into the space and discovered many males sitting together in a main lobby area. At his entrance, many glanced his way, their eyes dark with judgmental hatred as many men who examine other males seemed to have, before turning back to their friends, their cards, or their mugs of alcohol.

_The world has changed in my slumber..._

The grey-black hedgehog found himself drawn into the gathering of activity in this one place. While most of the patrons were male, a few women were scattered about the place, some draped across a man's arm, their eyes holding a sickly puppy-dog look of love and adoration. A few other females were drinking alone, such as one that caught the hedgehog's eye sitting at the main counter running across the east wall.

She was a pink female hedgehog, her hair cut short just a bit below her jaw line. She wore heavy black clothes, just like everyone else, and she was sipping a gold-colored liquid from a tall, thin glass about the size of an index finger.

"Mmmm. That was delicious, Nero. What was that?" He heard her ask the bartender as the male fox behind the counter slid her a second tiny glass of the same gold liquid.

"Special wine from further down the mountain. Sweet as can be. It's a very popular brand here when we get wine drinkers instead of booze inhalers." Nero turned and grabbed a wet glass out of the water and sud-filled sink, turning back to the girl while using a red hand-towel to dry the cup. "But I'm sure, as you can tell, wine isn't too popular around here." He nodded vaguely at the room behind her filled with men and women in various states of drunken stupors.

"My mother used to buy wine while she was alive. It helped her with her leg injury...the pain, I mean." The pink hedgehog tossed down a few bills for her drinks and grabbed her heavy ebony jacket off the back of her bar stool, slipping it over her long sleeved black t-shirt before zipping it up tight and pulling the fur-lined hood up around her face. "I'll catch you in a couple days, Nero."

"See ya around, Amy. Be safe. Stay warm." Nero turned away and started rinsing off the rest of his dishes as she made her way towards the door.

_Amy? Such a beautiful name...for a beautiful hedgehog...Hmmm._

With silent steps he followed the female through a set of swinging doors that seemed to come right out of an old, classic cowboy film. He watched as Amy pulled up her fur-lined hood and tugged on the collar strings to tighten it before making her way across the street. The black hedgehog followed along behind her, a smile stretching across his pale muzzle, his fangs glinting slightly in the muted sunlight.

She turned down between two buildings, heading into the close-walled alley, skirting around trash cans and heading for the light on the other side.

_Perfect..._

The black hedgehog disappeared into the snow, seemingly becoming one with it. In his shadow form he slid along the ground, trailing the sakura female until he was right behind her. He rose from the concrete, his body returning to its opaque form, and he smiled, his fangs elongating.

"Hello pretty one."

Amy gasped and whirled around as firm hands grabbed her arms and shoved her against the bricked wall of one of the buildings. She tried to fight and opened her mouth, preparing herself to cry for help, but a harsh bite into the side of her neck cut off her words, leaving her mouth open in a silent scream.

At that moment, many miles away, as the black hedgehog's fangs sank into the soft, giving skin of the sakura female, a bat's eyes flew open in sudden conciousness.


End file.
